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We’ve been tracking performance on Pip’s farm as he has sought to develop a ‘cow centric’ management system and what we are seeing is quite astounding… kgMS/ha/day the farm is 73% up on the area average over the last 10 days, 70% up month to date and 34% season for date and is looking to finish very strongly.

The advent of autumn calving is now a reality for many dairy farmers, either as a split calving pattern formed from the need to give a home to some empty cows. or as a response to changing farm systems where 100% autumn calving is desired. Whatever the reason for autumn calving on your farm, there are a number of practical ration balancing tips that can really help set your girls up for a productive season.

Heat stress is not only an issue for cows; it also throws up challenges for pastures. From an animal perspective, increases in average daily temperatures and humidity make it difficult for cows to keep cool. As a result, feed intake drops as your girls spend more time resting and looking for shade in the heat of the day.

In Part One we noted heat stress is not only an issue for cows; it also throws up challenges for pastures. Decreases in forage digestibility becomes an increasing challenge to maintaining dry matter intake (DMI) as we push into the summer months.

There have been a number of factors that have made achieving historical peak milk solids production per cow quite the challenge this season. With the ever improving milk solids payout, most producers are going to want to hold their cows as high as is physically possible in order to optimise milk solids sales...

There is a massive amount of effort that goes into getting your herd calved down and peaking as early as possible. It’s never about doing just one thing well, there are a numerous complex factors that have to be managed incredibly well to achieve early peak milk solids production...

Balancing rations for your dairy cows under a PKE cap can be easy – it’s a matter of deciding how you will replace those kilograms of intake. Fonterra’s announcement it would like to see their suppliers self-regulate the amount of palm kernel extract (PKE) consumed per cow daily to 3kgs (as fed) has raised concerns recently...

As spring progresses, ryegrass begins to attain phenomenal rates of daily growth and proceeds from a vegetative to reproductive phase. Usually at this stage we notice per cow production beginning to decline...

*We all enjoy spring pasture growth, as the pressure comes off average pasture cover and our cows can consume optimal pasture intake. The vat is up and we anticipate that everything will take care of itself...

*Every living creature has an ideal environmental temperature zone in which they will thrive, referred to as the thermo neutral zone (TNZ). For you and I, it will most likely be in the range of 23-30˚C, sitting under the shade of a palm tree on the beach in Fiji, cocktail in hand...

Every season, in the last months of lactation, there is suddenly a frenzy of focus and activity in attempting to increase the average body condition score (BCS) of dairy herds. Each season seems to throw up its own unique challenges to achieving an ideal average BCS for your herd at dry off, so it is fair to ask the question: Why all the fuss?

We’ve seen some spectacular milk production responses from fresh cows very early in their lactation this season. The benefits of integrated transition feeding programmes and average pasture covers have made it possible to achieve optimal dry matter intake (DMI) targets...

There is no doubt that every year farmers offer a greater variety of feed inputs, in ever increasing volumes, to maintain higher production expectations. Farmers also understand that continuous improvement of feed conversion efficiency is essential to enhancing operating profit...

We’re all gaining perspective and knowledge that we need to follow best practice within the dairy industry to improve animal performance and animal welfare. We also know all too well that the market price we receive per kilogramme of milk solids has a larger bearing on dairy business profitability than any other single factor...